Google Penalizes Blog Networks, Did SEOs Use It To Hurt Competitors?

I just don't see SEO companies using this as a tactic to hurt competitors. If you are going to consider a tactic like this in the first place, then you don't see (or care about) the long-term picture. As you said in your post, the people who used this "reaped the benefits" for some time before the penalty. Any "quick fix" minded SEO isn't going to consider putting a competitor ahead of them even for a few days in order to push them down at a random/arbitrary point in the possible future. I CAN see an SEO company suggesting doing this in hopes that OTHER SEO companies take up the practice and thus, when the hit comes, it affects "everyone". So, "To stop someone from doing it to their competitor" in a race for the top of the SERPS environment, the very nature of the process itself will stop it from happening. To stop other SEO companies from encouraging other SEO companies t...